54^ 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



the butter, cheese, poultry, and everything else, 

 at the farmer's door, and monopolizing the article 

 adds a frightful commission, and giving the far- 

 mer the lowest prices, compels the consumer in the 

 city to pay the highest prices. Thus both produ- 

 cer and consumer, by being kept apart, support a 

 large class of middlemen who wax fat at their ex- 

 pense. 



If any man doubts of these things, lot him try 

 the buying and selling price of any of these com- 

 modities, in Quincy Market, in Boston, any day, 

 and he may learn. Market fairs we want and 

 must have, regularly, in all our large towns. 



Much more might we learn of the Mark Lane 

 Express, had we time and space, but between text 

 and commentary, our sheet is already filled, and 

 we must await a future opportunity. 



For the New England Fanner. 

 AUTUMNAL SHOW S— APPROVAL. 



I like the tone of your article in the weekly 

 Farmer of the 13th October, headed "Autumnal 

 Shows," wherein you give an account of the New 

 Hampshire State Agricultural Fair. It would an- 

 swer for a description of some local fairs, held re- 

 cently in our region, at which agriculture, or what 

 properly pertains to its true interests, was entire- 

 ly in the back-ground, and a secondary matter — 

 but horse-races, raree shows, Yankee peddlers, 

 faro-tables, and the like, were first and foremost. 



If the time has come, as some of the officers of 

 our agricultural societies seem to conclude, that 

 fairs cannot be sustained, except by the aid of 

 these things, so utterly foreign to every agricul- 

 tural interest, for one, I should be willing to have 

 them cease at once, unless they can bo sustained 

 wholly upon their own merits. 



If I pay my quarter for admittance inside of 

 what are termed the fair grounds, it somewhat 

 grates upon my ears to be assailed immediately 

 upon entering "the enclosure, to expend another 

 quarter for the purpose of witnessing the wonder- 

 ful performance of the noted "Ethopian minstrels, 

 direct from New York," or to view the '"largest 

 living snake in America," or the "fat baby," or 

 the "what do you call it." No, Messrs. Editors, 

 this is not what I bargained for, and I wholly ob- 

 ject to its being thrust upon my notice in this 

 underhanded way. 



Seriously, I think the public will soon insist 

 that these things be purged from our fairs, or, as 

 an institution, they must go down, and their pri- 

 meval usefulness be lost. W. J. Pettee. 



Salisbury, Conn., Oct., 1860. 



To GET Horses from a Stable on Fire. — 

 Mr. Elisha French, of Braintree, Mass., has in- 

 vented a means of unfastening and taking horses 

 from their stalls when the building in which they 

 are kept is on fire. The contrivance, in model, 

 looks to us as though it would be useful. He says 

 it is so constructed that a person may stand at 

 the outer door and unfasten and lead a horse out 

 without exposing himself in the least to injury. 



THE OLD GBIST MILL. 



The grist mill stands beside the stream, 

 With bending roof and leaning wall, 



So old that when the winds are wild 

 The miller trembles lest it should fall ; 



But moss and ivy never sere. 



Bedeck it o'er Irom jear to year. 



The dam is steep, and welded green ; 



The gales are raised, the waters pour, 

 And tread the old wheel's slippery steps, 



The lowest round forevermore ; 

 Methinks they have a sound of ire. 

 Because they cannot climb it higher. 



From morn till night, in autumn time, 

 When heavy harvests load the jjlains, 



Up drives the farmer to the mill, 

 And back anon with loaded wains; 



They bring a heap of golden grain 



And take it home in meal again. 



The mill inside is dim and dark, 

 But peeping in the open door, 



You see the miller flitting round, 

 And dusty bags along the floor; 



And by the shaft and down the spout, 



The yellow meal comes pouring out. 



And all day long the winnowed chaff, 

 Floats round it on the sultry breeze, 



And shineth like a settling s.varm 

 Of golden-winged and belted bees ; 



Or sparks around a blacksmith's door, 



When bellows blow and forges roar. 



I love my pleasant, quaint old mill ! 



It 'minds me of mj' early prime ; 

 'Tis changed since then, but not so much 



As I am by decay and time ; 

 Its wrecks are mossed from year to year, 

 But mine all dark and bare appear. 



I stand by the stream of life : 

 Ths mighty current sweeps along, 



Lifting the flood-gates of my heart. 

 It turns the magic wheel of song, 



And grinds the ripening harvest brought 



From out the golden field of thought. 



APPLES. 



There is scarcely an article of vegetable food 

 more widely useful and more universally loved 

 than the apple. Why every farmer in the nation 

 has not an apple-orchard where the trees will grow 

 at all, is one of the mysteries. Let every family 

 lay in from two to ten or more barrels, and it will 

 be to them the most economical investment in the 

 whole range of culinaries. A raw mellow apple is 

 digested in an hour and a half; whilst boiled cab- 

 bage requires five hours. The most healthful des- 

 sert which can be placed on the table, is a baked 

 apple. If taken freely at breakfast with coarse 

 bread and butter, without meat or flesh of any 

 kind, it has an admirable effect on the general 

 system, often removing constipation, correcting 

 acidities, and cooling off febrile conditions, more 

 effectually than the most approved medicines. 



If families could be induced to sid^stitute the 

 apple — sound, ripe and luscious — for the pies, 

 cakes, candies, and other sweetmeats with which 

 their children are too often indiscretely stuffed, 

 there would be a diminution in the sum total of 

 doctors' bills in a single year sufficient to lay in 

 a stock of this delicious fruit for a whole season's 

 use. — Hall's Journal of liealih. 



